Adox to Rollei - help me choose a film

[briandaly]

I'm new to film photography and am unsure which brand and type of film to choose.
I would prefer medium contrast, medium to low grain, ISO 400 (although I understand the developer and development process will influence this as well as the film).

Looking at Freestyle's site, there seems to be a wide variation in price from approx. $1.89 to over $6 for a 36 exposure roll of 35mm film.

Should I stick with the leading brand names (Kodak, Ilford, Fuji) or should I save some cash and go with Arista, Forte, Foma etc. ?

Bulk film - am I better off trying a few different brands before committing myself to a 30m roll?

Orthochromatic film - who uses it and why?

All suggestions welcome.

Brian

 

[mcgrattan]

Personally, I'd stick with the leading brands unless there's a particular look you are after that you know can be had elsewhere.

I've experimented with the various 'eastern european' brands - Adox, Foma, Efke, etc and while they are pretty good for slow speed film, I find that Fuji Neopan 400 is much better, for me, and can be had for roughly the same price if you shop around [in the UK at least].

Also, it's worth trying some chromagenic films if you plan to have them developed and printed by a lab. Ilford XP2 or Fuji Neopan 400CN [note the 'CN'] are excellent and, at least here, can be cheaper to have processed and printed than traditional black and white.

 

[briandaly]

Personally, I'd stick with the leading brands unless there's a particular look you are after that you know can be had elsewhere.

I've experimented with the various 'eastern european' brands - Adox, Foma, Efke, etc and while they are pretty good for slow speed film, I find that Fuji Neopan 400 is much better, for me, and can be had for roughly the same price if you shop around [in the UK at least].

Also, it's worth trying some chromagenic films if you plan to have them developed and printed by a lab. Ilford XP2 or Fuji Neopan 400CN [note the 'CN'] are excellent and, at least here, can be cheaper to have processed and printed than traditional black and white.

Thanks for the reply.
Where I live, a roll of Tri-X sells for between 5 and 6 Euros, so I would like to buy in bulk from an online retailer. HP5+, Tri-X or Neopan 400 seem like the best options.

 

[mr_phillip]

I'd recommend choosing a film and getting to know it thoroughly. You don't say if you plan to develop it yourself, but if you do it'd be worth doing a little research to see what developers are readily available locally. If, for instance, you can find Ilford devs on your local high street, then an Ilford film might be a good way to go.

My favourite film/developer combos at this speed are:

Tri-X in HC-110 (low-ish grain, good contrast with a nice punchy curve)
HP5+ in HC-110 (slightly less contrasty than Tri-X with a huge tonal range and pleasing granularity)
Delta 400 in DD-X (sharp with medium contrast and very fine visible grain)

If you can get the new Kodak T-Max then that'd be a great choice. I haven't tried it yet, but all the reviews say it's a huge improvement over the old version (which I wasn't too fond of due to its habit of blowing out highlights at the drop of a hat) and, developed in the T-Max developer, has the sharpness and grain characteristics of a much slower film.

I don't know where you get your film, but 7 Day Shop have some great deals and you won't need to pay any import duties.

 

[briandaly]

mr_phillip,

Thanks for the suggestion and the link. 7-day's prices on film are good, but they don't list any chemicals. I plan to do the developing myself.

Brian

 

[like2fiddle]

I agree that a major brand would be a good starting point. Both HP5 and Tri-X are very versatile and would give you room to experiment with pulling, pushing, etc. Both do well with D76 and with HC-110.

 

[thomasw_]

I recommend using rodinal 50+1 with trix400 or neopan400 if you like coal dark blacks and creamy whites; you might even like them rated at 200/250/320. But I'd use flickr as a resource, doing a search on the various film/developer combinations that interest you.
good cheer, thomas

 

[Charly]

7dayshop is your friend for cheap film in Europe. I think they do some chemistry but Retro Photographic and Silverprint are the people I use.

With film, you have two major choices, modern "T" grain film such as Delta or T Max or the more old fashioned technology of HP5+ and Tri X etc. This may have an impact on the developer you use.....T Max apparently works best in T Max developer. I don't like T Max so couldn't say.

My favourites are Tri X and Delta.